The Buddhist have an eight fold plan
The Hindu doctrine is Karma
The Jewish covenant
The Muslim code of law -Each of these offers a way to earn approval
Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional - We can't buy it, earn it, work for it, it is known as Grace.

Because God is spirit so are we when not in a human body or incarnation, everything evolved out of eternal spirit (God) and when the human experience has run its course everything will be absorbed back into the eternal from whence it came. So me luv;s think outside the box. cackle cackle.

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’”
George Bernard Shaw

Surely if there were a GOD, he would be all-knowing, all-powerful and omni present. If he wanted us to obey certain laws or live our lives a particular way, he could simply write his wishes across the sky in giant letters. WHY would he leave us to squabble among ourselves over his wishes or worse, leave us to the mercy of crooks, charlatans or religious zealots to TELL US what God wants of us. ALL COMMUNICATION with "God" is one way......there is NEVER a response, which supports the argument that when we pray, nobody is listening. No religion is based on Gods actual word.....it is all passed down over centuries after being interpreted, translated, embellished or simply made up. To my mind, "faith" is just the belief in a hypothesis that cannot be proven by science or hard evidence.

Teddy dearest, human beings reduce things to a singularity God as a big jovial father in the sky so as you say i believe there is a God but in spirit which is so large, it covers the whole universe and beyond. When we are not incarnating we are spirit one and the same as the divine spirit.
I blame religious dogma for corruption of the truth,
.

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’”
George Bernard Shaw

Dukey, my experience in sending my first born to kindergarten Sunday school, (more for socialisation than anything) ended abruptly.
She came home and more or less told me God was sitting up on a cloud watching us.

I said to think more in the terms of spirit, that is more like air, but present even where air can't go.

My explanation to the Sunday school was met with "But you have to tell children what they can grasp."
Well she had no difficulty understanding me. No more Sunday school, ever!

. . . To my mind, "faith" is just the belief in a hypothesis that cannot be proven by science or hard evidence.

Exactly, Hugo. We can't 'know' anything, we have to go with whatever hypothesis makes sense to us, individually.

To me it makes sense that we are here to learn and develop, life is a school with some pretty hard lessons, and hopefully we leave better equipped than when we came in. Or get further educated - I don't know.

Our belief systems and/or "faith" are intensely personal aspects of our character and I never seek to denigrate or persuade anyone to my beliefs (such as they are). I merely express my opinions and enjoy reading the thoughts of others. The existence of "God" or some supreme being is not something I can embrace personally, but I respect the views of those with differing opinions.

Surely if there were a GOD, he would be all-knowing, all-powerful and omni present. If he wanted us to obey certain laws or live our lives a particular way, he could simply write his wishes across the sky in giant letters. WHY would he leave us to squabble among ourselves over his wishes or worse, leave us to the mercy of crooks, charlatans or religious zealots to TELL US what God wants of us. ALL COMMUNICATION with "God" is one way......there is NEVER a response, which supports the argument that when we pray, nobody is listening. No religion is based on Gods actual word.....it is all passed down over centuries after being interpreted, translated, embellished or simply made up. To my mind, "faith" is just the belief in a hypothesis that cannot be proven by science or hard evidence.

You are assuming that if there is a god your brain is big enough to know the mind of God.
I can testify that communication with God is not all one way and that God's desire is not that we obey certain laws or that he expects us to live our lives according to any one set of moral or spiritual precepts. The greatest desire of the Creator is to enter into relationship with creation. I don't know about the other animals in this regard but I do know that God breaks in to human consciousness, sometimes when we least expect it.

Thus speaks a one time atheist who has been touched, nay nudged unexpectedly, by the finger of God.

If you don't have an ASIO file by now then you should be ashamed of yourself.

Once again we have the singularity, the divine is spirit and we and everything we can conceive came forth
from that source, God has no involvement in human affairs what you experienced Ma'am was your higher self which can act providing it complies with karmic law. That is my view as i see it.

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’”
George Bernard Shaw

I fondly remember my father's sage words when I was young. "opinions are like bum holes.......everybody has one" What a dull world we would be living in if everyone thought the same. (No disrespect to ANYONE intended).